New answers tagged cosmic-radiation
14
You actually ask a really good question. And the answer is, we do both, depending on the needs.
NASA tends to go for the ultra-reliable, and radiation tolerant components are more reliable, thus it is their preferred way. Many commercial satellites, however, use non-space grade components that are shielded lightly, and with software and hardware built in a ...
2
Throwing some rough and ready math at the question, happy to be corrected by anybody with actual numbers.
Hardening increases the radiation level to trigger errors by several orders of magnitude, call it 1000 for this.
Dropping the radiation by a factor of 1000 to a 10cm cube would take about half a mm of lead, adding up to something like 250g. Most ...
72
Because shielding against radiation is heavy, and weight is the enemy of getting things into space.
CPUs are quite sensitive to radiation, and some types of radiation (cosmic rays) are not only quite good at penetrating most things, as they do, they cause a cascade of secondary radiation. To protect a device form any of this radiation getting through is not ...
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